VOA标准英语2009年-Iraqi-American Zainab Salbi Assists Wo

Salbi's "Women for Women International" gives women who've survived war the tools to rebuild their lives

Mohamed Elshinnawi | Washington, DC 15 December 2009

Zainab Salbi was named "Washingtonian of the Year" in 2006 by "Washingtonian" Magazine

 

In 1993, Zainab Salbi founded Women for Women International.  The non-profit group helps women worldwide whose lives have been shattered by war or domestic violence to make a fresh start.

Zainab Salbi grew up in Iraq, where her father was the private pilot for former dictator Saddam Hussein.  Even within this privileged circle, the young Salbi began learning the horrors of warfare¹ in 1980, when Iraq launched what would be its bloody², 8-year war with neighboring Iran. She left Iraq at the age of 21, just before the country's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, because her mother had arranged her marriage to a man in the United States.

Unfortunately, her husband turned out to be abusive.

"I got into a marital³ relationship in America to a man that did everything my mother told me not to accept," Salbi recalls. "He violated me in so many different ways: physically⁴, emotionally, everything.  So I left him after three months and I got divorced."

Launched during Bosnian civil war

President Clinton praised Zainab Salbi's "fine work" helping⁵ women in the war-torn Balkans

Sensitized to the violence women can be subjected to, she was appalled⁶ by what she saw happening during the Bosnian civil war that began in 1992. Salbi says the horrors of concentration camps and the premeditated rape⁷ of women and girls by soldiers galvanized her resolve to help women victimized by war.  With the help of the Unitarian Church and the money she had saved for her honeymoon⁸ with her second husband, she flew to Croatia and launched Women for Women International.

"I remember September, 1993," says Salbi. "I spent it in a bus distributing money to 33 women in refugee camps in Croatia."

Maggie Heinzel-Neel
Today, "Women for Women International" is helping Rwandan women brutalized by the 1994 genocide to rebuild their lives and take a leadership role in healing the country's wounds

 

The Women for Women campaign soon moved from Croatia to war-ravaged Bosnia, then expanded to nearby Kosovo and to the strife-torn African nations of Rwanda, Nigeria, Congo and Sudan. It now serves women in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well.

"As of September 2009," Salbi says, "we have helped 243,000 women, distributed more than $80 million and we are now working with about 62,000 women on a monthly basis."

Women for Women International offers more than crisis counseling. Salbi says it has developed special programs to help women in crisis to regain⁹ their sense of self-worth by moving from poverty and despair to financial independence and personal pride.

Teaching marketable skills

In 2007 Salbi won the prestigious¹⁰ John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award

"We teach them skills," Salbi explains, "such as brick-making in Congo or organic farming on a commercial level in Rwanda and in Sudan, or jewelry-making in Afghanistan. Or outsourcing with companies with women in Bosnia, where 400 women are employed by a high-end designer to produce mittens¹¹ and gloves and all sorts of things."

Salbi says these small but sustainable enterprises are making a huge difference in women's lives in conflict zones around the globe.  "In countries like Sudan," she notes, "where the per capita income in southern Sudan is $80 a year, our women are earning $190 a year. In countries like Rwanda, where their per capita income is $450 a year, our women are earning up to $200 a month."

Salbi adds that through basic education and health training, Women for Women International is also helping to empower previously¹² marginalized women to take control – and better care – of their lives. "For example, 15 percent of the women we have helped in Rwanda are running for local elections; 95 percent are having their babies in hospitals as opposed to in their own homes, a practice which increased maternal¹³ mortality."

Zainab Salbi has written two books about her experiences: One is a memoir¹⁴, written with Laurie Becklund, titled Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam. The second book is a collection of narratives¹⁵ about some of the women Salbi's group has helped, called The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope.  The central theme in both books, Salbi says, is that you should regard your life as a mission not just to believe in moral principles but to act on them – what Salbi calls "living your truth."

 

"I just turned 40. And if I die today, I will die a content woman because I am privileged to have been provided the opportunity to live my truth. It is time for each one of us to live our truths fully¹⁶ and to do something about it and not to die in our silence and not to die miserably¹⁷ and regretting on our death bed, 'Ah, (in the) next life I will do this.'"

 

Zainab Salbi sees Women for Women International as part of an emerging global women's movement, which she believes is helping to change social attitudes about women and offering them greater protection from violence – in war zones as well as the home. She is hopeful the movement can achieve even broader goals:  the full inclusion of women in political decision-making everywhere, and more equitable¹⁸ access to their countries' social services and economic resources. She is convinced that to build democracies and economies that are more sustainable, peaceful and just, the rights of women must be secured, a mission to which Zainab Salbi has dedicated¹⁹ her life.

1 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

2 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

3 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。

4 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

8 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

9 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

10 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

11 mittens   

不分指手套

参考例句：

• Cotton mittens will prevent the baby from scratching his own face. 棉的连指手套使婴儿不会抓伤自己的脸。
• I'd fisted my hands inside their mittens to keep the fingers warm. 我在手套中握拳头来保暖手指。

12 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

13 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

14 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

15 narratives   

记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分

参考例句：

• Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning. 结婚一向是许多小说的终点，然而也是一个伟大的开始。
• This is one of the narratives that children are fond of. 这是孩子们喜欢的故事之一。

16 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

17 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。

19 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。